


Words at Midnight

by nagi_schwarz



Series: The Oppenheimer Effect [47]
Category: Clan Mitchell - Fandom, Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: AU, Crossover, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-19
Updated: 2016-06-19
Packaged: 2018-07-16 01:36:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7246951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: "any, any, conversations at midnight."</p><p>The boys of Casa Atlantica and the boys of Clan Mitchell have words at midnight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Words at Midnight

Ash came awake first, heart pounding. He reached for his gun and slid into the hall, back pressed against the wall, before he realized where he was.  
  
He was home.  
  
It was the night before Christmas Eve, and he was home.  
  
Someone was screaming in Arabic.  
  
Ash’s heart rate was still iffy when other doors in the hallway opened. Dad, Skipper, and Spence all peered into the hallway, half-alert and sleepy.  
  
And then Ash heard Cam say, “Dammit, Evan, I can’t hold him.”  
  
There was a slap of flesh on flesh, and then Evan said, “Captain! Captain, wake up!”  
  
Ash lowered his gun, confused. Both Evan and Cam had mustered out as Majors.  
  
Still someone was screaming in Arabic. Cursing in Arabic. Threats and protests. _Don’t touch me. Get your hands off me. I’m not telling you a thing._  
  
Tyler came stumbling into the hallway, hair wild, eyes wide.  
  
Evan said, “ _Jack._ ”  
  
The screaming cut off.  
  
Ash’s throat closed.  
  
JD said, muzzily, “Did you have to hit me so hard?”  
  
“Sorry.” That was Evan. “Just - you weren’t coming out of it.”  
  
Spence and Skipper raised their eyebrows, exchanged meaningful looks, more awake.  
  
Mom and Dad had deliberately put Cam and his boyfriends in the room with the least amount of privacy to ensure absolutely zero hanky panky during the holidays, and not just because there were kids in the house. Mom and Dad were trying to understand the whole JD thing for Cam’s sake, but it was hard; Ash still couldn’t wrap his head around it.  
  
“How bad was it?” JD asked.  
  
“Arabic,” Cam said.  
  
“Oh. Good.” JD yawned.   
  
“Good?” Evan echoed.  
  
JD said, “Could’ve been - you know.”  
  
“Yeah,” Evan and Cam said, the word loaded with deeper meaning.  
  
“Hell. I probably woke the whole house. Your insulation sucks, Cam.”  
  
Dad, mouth set in a thin line, turned and closed his bedroom door, limped back into bed. Ash could hear the muffled murmur of Mom’s voice as she asked what was wrong.  
  
Tyler crept across the hall, knocked on the door.  
  
“Cammie? Evan? JD?”  
  
The door opened, and Evan stood there, shirtless. Ash winced. The scars on his chest were horrific, like Edward Scissorhands had come at him.  
  
“Hey, sorry, didn’t mean to wake you. Walls in this place are pretty thin. It’s a wonder the family is as big as it is.” Evan leaned down and hugged Tyler, ruffled his hair. “JD was just having a bad dream. Go back to sleep.”  
  
“Does JD want some hot sugar milk?” Tyler asked.  
  
“That’s a really good idea,” Evan said. “I’ll take care of it. You go on back to bed.”  
  
“Are you sure?” Tyler’s eyes were wide and watery.  
  
“Yeah, kiddo.” Evan pressed a kiss to Tyler’s hair and then gently pushed him in the direction of his own room.  
  
Tyler cast a few anxious glances over his shoulder before he went to his own room.  
  
Evan caught Ash’s eye, glanced at Skipper and Spence as well. “Sorry,” he said. “Don’t know what triggered it.”  
  
“No need to apologize for that, not in this house,” Ash said. “Anything we can do?”  
  
Before Evan could speak, JD pushed past him. He was dressed in sweatpants, a hoodie, and sneakers.  
  
“Going for a run, clear my head,” JD said.  
  
“It’s midnight. It’s freezing out there,” Evan began, but JD headed for the front door.  
  
“Let him go,” Cam said quietly.  
  
Evan sighed. “I’ll go get some milk heated up.” He started forward, paused. “Which way to the kitchen?”  
  
“I’ll show you,” Ash said. He nodded at Skipper and Spence, and they retreated to their own rooms.  
  
Ash pulled on a t-shirt, then led Evan through the hall to the kitchen. No doubt Evan could have found his way were he fully awake, and he’d probably not get lost on his way to the kitchen for the rest of the visit. For a guy who’d supposedly spent seven years doing deep space telemetry, he was as alert and observant as any maroon beret Ash had ever met. Ash showed Evan where the saucepans and sugar were kept, and Evan began heating milk up on the stove, whisking sugar into it as he went. Ash fetched several mugs for him.

Cam rolled into the kitchen just as the milk was almost done. Evan poured him and Ash mugs without asking, then poured more milk into the saucepan and kept stirring. Cam handed Evan a shirt, and Evan tugged it on absently, squeezed Cam’s shoulder in thanks. Ash had been doing his damnedest not to stare at Evan’s scars, but they looked like an animal had made them, evenly spaced like claws, not quite neat enough to be from knives.  
  
“What was that?” Ash asked quietly.  
  
“Nightmare,” Cam said.  
  
“What kind of kid his age has the kinds of nightmares Uncle Gerald has from Vietnam?” Ash raised his eyebrows.  
  
Evan said, “Not really a kid.”  
  
“Yes, really a kid. Been through hell, maybe. But really a kid.” Ash pinned his older brother with a dark look.  
  
“No,” Cam said, “really not.”  
  
He was deadly serious, but Ash just couldn’t wrap his mind around it. He was about to say more, but the sound of a door opening made all of them turn and look.  
  
Dad rolled into the kitchen.  
  
Cam’s gaze turned shuttered. “Sorry, Pop.”  
  
“Don’t apologize to me,” Dad said.  
  
Cam sighed. “I'll apologize to the others in the morning.”  
  
Evan poured another mug of hot milk, handed it to Dad. He sniffed it warily, then took a sip. His eyebrows went up, and he drank some more. He cast Ash a significant look, and Ash nodded. The stuff was delicious. Already it was making him feel calmer, sleepy.  
  
“What happened there, son?” Dad asked. “That was a grade-A shell-shock nightmare.”  
  
Cam and Evan exchanged looks.  
  
“It’s not grade-A till someone sleepwalks with a gun,” Cam said, and Evan ducked his head.  
  
Ash knew Evan and Cam had been assigned to the same umbrella project but not been stationed anywhere near each other, hadn’t even met each other till they were getting their teaching degrees. Whatever they’d been doing, it was a sight more perilous than staring down a telescope, if Evan sometimes went sleepwalking with his gun in hand.  
  
“There’s something odd about that boy,” Dad said.  
  
Cam shrugged, offered a watered-down version of his sweetest, most innocent sheepish smile. “We're all odd in Casa Atlantica.”  
  
Cam wasn’t lying. Rodney McKay was some kind of social idiot but physics savant, and John Sheppard was the movie kind of pilot who never succeeded in real life: handsome, cocky, disrespectful of authority. But he’d been honorably discharged and somehow made major before he separated from the service. And Evan was some kind of hippie in soldier’s clothing. But Cam was prevaricating, too, because Dad meant something else.  
  
Something with JD was...off. The way he held himself, with an adult-like assurance that someone younger than Skipper and Spence shouldn't have been able to pull off. And something in his eyes -

The back door opened, bringing with it a blast of cold air, and then JD was in the kitchen, stamping snow off his sneakers and shaking snow off his beanie cap. His cheeks and nose were flushed from the cold, but he was barely breathing hard. Ash was the right side of thirty-five and hated him for a moment.  
  
“You all right?” Cam asked.  
  
Evan crossed the kitchen, fetched JD a glass of water, which he drained in three gulps. Then JD accepted the mug of warm milk Evan gave him (Evan finally poured himself a share and turned off the stove) and sipped at its contents more slowly.  
  
“Better, thanks.” JD inclined his head at Dad. “Apologies, sir. Didn’t mean to disturb all you fine folk.”  
  
“I don’t get you,” Dad said. “You look barely older than Cam’s new son, but I heard you talking to Gerald. About the F-17's. You spoke of them with...fondness. Like someone who has experience.”  
  
“I do have my pilot’s license,” JD said. “Got a lot of my flying hours with Evan, actually.”  
  
Ash sneaked a glance at Cam, ready for jealousy or bitterness, but Cam just looked proud.  
  
“Who _are_ you?” Dad asked.  
  
“I’m the man who’s in love with your son,” JD said. “I woke up one day, fifteen years old, and learned that my entire life had been ripped from me. Everyone I knew, everyone I loved - gone. Dead. Cut off from me. Same difference. I was on my own for a couple of years. Then Evan came along, and he reminded me that it was okay to take risks, to invest in other people, to care for them more deeply than simple friendship. Cam reminded me that however many pieces I was shattered into, I could be made whole again.”  
  
Dad studied him for a long time. “No soldier is whole.”  
  
“We’re whole where it counts,” JD said. He met Dad’s gaze and held it. _We,_ he said. Like he numbered himself among the soldiers as well. “I’m not leaving Cam and Evan for newer, younger models. I won’t walk away from Cam on the day when his chair is no longer enough for him to get around. I’m not here to break Cam’s heart.”  
  
“How can I possibly trust that?” Dad took a deep breath, curled his hands into fists.  
  
“You’ll just have to watch and see.”  
  
Dad glanced at Ash.  
  
Ash shrugged. He had nothing to add.  
  
“I’ll be watching you,” Dad said.  
  
JD smiled faintly. “You do that.” He drained his mug, rinsed it, and set it on the drying rack. “Come on. We'd better get what sleep we can before children rain down on us at the crack of dawn.” He leaned down and kissed Cam, then straightened up and kissed Evan, and headed for the hallway.  
  
Ash watched him go and thought, even if he never figured JD Nealson out, he knew one thing about the kid: he had guts. And he loved Cam, and for more than that, Ash couldn’t ask.


End file.
